


Rescues on the Shores

by LadyBrooke



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Legends, M/M, Modern Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-09 11:42:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11668443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyBrooke/pseuds/LadyBrooke
Summary: Finrod has walked the shores for a century, listening to stories of a man who rescues children from the ocean. Perhaps this most recent case will finally lead him to Maglor.





	Rescues on the Shores

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Elleth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elleth/gifts).



“They say that there’s a man on the shores who lures the children in from the waves with his voice,” the man said, lifting his glass to his mouth and taking a drink. A blond haired man sitting next to him nodded, leaning forward to listen.

“There is, Jack, and you know it.” A woman called from the next table, interrupting the story. She turned to face the listener. “He saved my daughter last month. She snuck out of the house one night and made her way down there to go swimming. I never would have known what happened if she had drowned, but I woke up to a knock on the door and my daughter dripping wet on the step. He vanished before I could thank him, but my daughter said she heard singing before somebody pulled her out.”

“She could have been imaging it.” Jack shrugged, taking a sip of his drink. “You didn’t hear the singing, now did you?”

“No, but I saw him leave my garden,” Mary snapped back.

Finrod shrugged, learning back from where he had been listening. “I heard a similar story a few towns over, about another child rescued from the sea.”

Mary nodded and motioned out the window at the town. “I asked around after my daughter was rescued. There’s been more than a few children saved the same way, and my grandmother mentioned hearing similar when she was a girl. No one knows what he’s singing, but they hear the song before he rescues them from the waters.”

Finrod nodded. “I’ve heard similar stories when I visited other towns in this area.”

“You one of those people who studies legends and tries to figure out where they came from?” Jack asked. “My son likes to read about those things.”

“Something like that, yes.” Finrod smiled, before looking out the window of the restaurant. “How far away was your daughter when she was rescued?”

“About four miles down the coast,” Mary said. “We live down near the dunes. Some of the other children said they’ve heard singing too, though nobody has managed to find where it’s coming from. It disappears when they get too close.”

“Be careful near the cliffs if you head down that way,” Jack added. “The ground is steeper than it looks.”

Finrod grinned. “I spent my childhood near the ocean. Cliffs have a way of tricking you into thinking it’s not that far down, until you jump and it actually is.”

“You must have terrorized your parents,” Mary said. “I have enough trouble with my children on the beaches when they avoid the cliffs.”

“I terrorized them and my cousin, I suspect.” Finrod rubbed a finger over the edge of the table and stood. “Still, if I did fall, perhaps I would have a chance to meet this mysterious rescuer of drowning victims.”

Jack laughed. “Well, good luck with that. Tell him to stop lurking around the caves and come out sometimes, if he can bear the sun.”

Finrod smiled again as he opened the door. “If I find him, I promise I will.”

He closed the door behind him and walked down the lane. This wasn’t the first town he had visited with a story of someone singing and rescuing children from drowning, but it was the one with the most recent case of that happening.

There had been stories since the Second Age, according to Celebrimbor and later Elrond. Elrond have given him a book,  _An Account of the Beliefs of the Seafarers of Umbar,_ which had mentioned some of the earliest ones. He had seen for himself some depictions in Vairë’s tapestries, when he had begged her to give him some evidence to present to Manwë of Maglor’s good deeds.

The tapestries spanning six ages and testimony from Ulmo had finally swayed Manwë where pleading had not.

They would still have to wait some time before returning to Valinor. Long enough for the Valar to watch over them and see how Maglor interacted with other elves. Long enough for Finarfin to coax others to acceptance, if not forgiveness.

But also long enough too for Finrod and Maglor to repair what had once been, if only he could find Maglor to do so.

He continued down the coast for some time, before he finally started to hear singing just as Arien fell beneath the horizon and Tilion began his rise.

He followed the voice for some time, before finally finding what he assumed was the right area, though the entrance was still hidden. “You have led me on quite an adventure, cousin,” Finrod called out.

The singing quit and there was silence for several long moments. Finrod was almost afraid that he had startled Maglor away when the rocks began to shimmer on one side and slid open, revealing his lover.

“Could I have really led you on an adventure when I was unaware you were following me?” Maglor raised an eyebrow. “Though you always were prone to following us into folly, I suppose.”

Finrod laughed. “Love makes fools of us all, as you are well aware. Surely you knew someone would return for you one day? Is it that much of a surprise that I would be the one to?”

Maglor was quiet again, and Finrod realized that he had indeed thought he would be forsaken. “I was unsure it would be permitted by the Valar, if you even wished to come,” Maglor finally admitted.

“I will always return to find you,” Finrod said. “If I didn’t, who knows where you would end up.” His eyes glinted as he finished his joke, determined to forget their problems for at least one night.

“I am not the one who ended up stumbling across Men in the forest and became distracted for months by them,” Maglor said. “But still, even if you wished to come find me, surely the Valar did not give you their permission.”

Finrod barely kept from frowning at the reminder that his cousin had never been good at accepting forgiveness or help. “I was delayed from coming for some years gaining their permission, but I have it, if not their blessing. The times you saved children from drowning was a point in your favor.”

“I did not do it to gain the Valar’s favor.” Maglor’s hands twisted into fists, the burn from the Silmaril visible on one.

“No, but it had that effect regardless.” Finrod moved closer, grasping his cousin’s hands and holding on until he relaxed them out of fists. “Will you not ask me to stay until we may return to Valinor together?”

“How long will that be?” Maglor asked. “I would not see you spend ages lingering beside me in this cave.”

“I doubt it will be that long,” Finrod answered, smiling. “But if it is, who says we have to linger here? We can explore more shores than these, and I can help you rescue anyone you wish. I am the better swimmer after all, and I made my home in a cave, if you recall”

Maglor finally laughed and smiled as well. “Out of everything, that would be how you argued to stay with me.” He leaned down and kissed Finrod on the lips. “You may stay, if only so that I can watch and make sure you don’t drown yourself while attempting to jump off a cliff and swim.”

“Thank you,” Finrod said, and returned the kiss. “Perhaps we can do that after you show me around our lodgings.”

“You just want to see the bed.”

“It has been a long century tracking you around through legends and stories of a singing man rescuing children from the waves, I think I deserve to see the bed and you in it.” Finrod grinned, pulling on Maglor’s hand. “Now, where is it?”

“This way,” Maglor said. “I’ll be glad to show you it, with me in it as requested.”

Finrod smiled as he was pulled towards it.

 


End file.
